Good Data Doesn’t Mean Good Decisions

January 16, 2017

We live in a data-driven society. Unfortunately, good data is not always easily identified and even when it is; it doesn’t guarantee that the user will make sound decisions.

First, as Nate Silver famously pointed out in his book, there exists a lot of noise along with signals in data. It is sometimes nearly impossible to identify which is which until after the fact and that can be harmful to your business.

Second, because of the current trend to seek the latest expert advice when it comes to technology and other topics, lots of times a team consists of one industry expert with others who are not as well-versed in a particular field. That means even good data doesn’t yield optimal results since it is likely a team is not entirely equipped to handle all of the data.

Finally, even in the face of good data, is your team prepared to get the most out of it? Many teams are not, so spending resources gathering data ends up returning less than expected.

Even business executives don’t manage information as well as they manage talent, capital and brand. Too many executives treat data as something for the IT department to handle or consider themselves too inexpert to get deeply involved in how data is shared.

Managers need to wake up to the fact that their data investments are providing limited returns because their organization is underinvested in understanding the information.
So what can you do about all of this? Well, one option that can benefit any company is providing more comprehensive data handling training for their employees. In other words, get everyone up to speed and teach workers how to analyze, question and interpret data. Gathering big data – good data – becomes more useful when employees know what to do with it. Better decision making is just as important, if not more so, than information gathering so setting up the right types of training courses and workshops is critical.

Beyond that, providing employees with the right tools to analyze data is also a crucial step in getting more out of your information. The most successful companies understand this concept and find better ways to present data.

In the end, it comes down to building the right environment, one where numbers are questioned and analyzed by everyone, simply because everyone has the tools and know-how to be able to. When a company cultivates an environment where everyone is learning on the go and learning from their superiors, workshops and colleagues, then big data can, indeed, lead to the right decisions.

To learn howGeoMetrx can help you more effectively visualize your data in order to make good business decisions, contact us.